The 25 Most Bad-Ass ‘Final Girls’ In Horror

By B.J. Colangelo

For the uninitiated, the Final Girl is the sole survivor of a horror movie, the woman — and it’s almost always a woman — who manages to either defeat the boogeyman at the center of a film or simply escape from the nasty shenanigans at play. Since Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Final Girl has been a horror fixture — and here are the best.

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25) JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT
After Julie James and her friends accidentally kill a man in a car accident, the group finds themselves being stalked and killed by someone claiming, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. A final girl, yes, but is she deserving? I mean, she did kill a man and cover it up with her friends.

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24) ALICIA WITT
The URBAN LEGEND film might not be the best slasher ever made, but Natalie Simon did her homework to make sure she wouldn’t be the next one to die at the hands of the killer on her campus.

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23) SHELLEY DUVALL
Wendy Torrance may have married the worst man possible in THE SHINING, but the love she has for her son motivates her to survive no matter what. Armed with a baseball bat and a knife, Wendy fights for her life and the protection of her son from her crazed husband. No matter how scared she gets or how many weird things she witnesses, she makes it out alive.

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22) CAROLINE WILLIAMS
Vanita “Stretch” Brock is the coolest DJ on the radio, and she manages to fight with strength and knowledge in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II. She informs the world of the terrors of the Sawyer family, sweet talks Choptop into sparing her life, and swings a chainsaw around just as Leatherface did in the first film.

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21) LISA WILCOX
Alice Johnson survives Freddy Krueger not once, but twice in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 and 5. After years of battling the monster, Alice moves on with her life and has a son, Jacob, who she also teaches how to defeat Freddy. She’s not just a final girl, but a woman determined to make sure Freddy will never come to power.

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20) PATRICIA ARQUETTE
In A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS we’re shown Kristen Parker, a girl that has the ability to pull people into her dreams. While she ultimately needs Nancy Thompson’s help in destroying Freddy Krueger, the fact Kristen and Freddy share similar powers makes her a pretty awesome final girl.

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19) SHAUNA MCDONALD
Sarah in THE DESCENT is a tough girl through and through. Not only does she survive after being attacked by a legion of troglofaunal flesh-eating humanoids, but she does so while trapped in a pitch-black cave. Battling monsters, friends, and a dangerous cavern, Sarah even later returns to the treacherous cave in the sequel.

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18) DANA KIMMELL
Chris Higgins in FRIDAY THE 13TH III probably did more damage to Jason Voorhees than any other character. She stabbed him, beat him, hung him, and axed him. She winds up in the mental hospital, but she her impressive fighting skills are worthy of note.

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17) JESSICA HARPER
Battling a coven of witches rather than a man in a mask, Suzy Bannion in SUSPIRIA fights the living, the undead, and the supernatural all while trying to perfect her ballet skills. Suzy took it upon herself to destroy the coven’s queen in order to end the terror they brought to the world.

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16) ANGELA GOETHALSBEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON follows a serial killer inspired by all of the famous slashers, and Taylor Gentry is the perfect girl to destroy him. Leslie Vernon welcomes his demise, because he picked her from the beginning to be the ultimate “survivor girl.”

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15) NAOMIE HARRIS
Rage infected people may have taken over the world in 28 DAYS LATER, but Selena did everything in her power to not only stay alive, but also protect the other survivors struggling to fight the infected. Selena wasn’t just a tough fighter; she was a kind soul that did everything she could to help.

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14) KRISTEN CONNOLEY
Slated to be the final girl from the very opening sequence, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS’ Dana Polk knew the rules being a final girl entailed, but decided to forego traditional stereotypes in favor of destroying a vicious cycle we’ve seen over and over again.

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13) ANNA FARIS
Cindy Campbell in SCARY MOVIE is the epitome of a final girl, because she’s a giant parody of every final girl in existence. No matter how funny the films may be, Cindy Campbell still learned from the ones that came before her to survive whatever monster or killer came her way.

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12) ADRIENNE KING
After all of her fellow counselors are killed one by one, Alice in FRIDAY THE 13th comes face to face with Pamela Voorhees herself, and decapitates that cable-knit sweater murderer with a machete. Alice was the purest of the group, but she is lucky to be alive.

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11) JOCELIN DONAHUE
Samantha Hughes joins the ranks of babysitter slasher targets in Ti West’s HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. We spend an entire film falling in love with the innocent Samantha, only to watch her fight her way out of a house filled with people determined to destroy her. No amount of blood or satanic rituals can stop her!

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10) OLIVIA HUSSEY
Jess Bradford in BLACK CHRISTMAS has been called the first ever final girl, and with good reason. She does everything in her power from calling the authorities to taking matters into her own hand to make sure that she survives the obscene phone caller killing off her friends.

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9) AMY STEELE
Sympathetic towards poor Jason Voorhees, Ginny Field in FRIDAY THE 13TH II discovers his shack in the woods after he’s killed all of her fellow counselors and has to fight for her life against this unstoppable force. She uses her intellect to trick Jason into thinking she is his mother, and gets out alive. Traumatized, but alive.

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8) DANIELLE HARRIS
Adam Green’s HATCHET series is a love letter to slasher films, and it’s only fitting that they’d come with a killer final girl in the form of Marybeth Dunston. Resiliant and not afraid to get a little bloody, Marybeth not only survives, but does everything in her power to make sure Victor Crowley can’t hurt anyone ever again.

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7) ASHLEY LAURENCE
Not many people can say they’ve dealt with the Cenobites of HELLRAISER and lived to tell the tale, but Kirsty Cotton masters the Lermanchand’s box and manages to manipulate both Earth and Hell to ensure her own survival.

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6) SHARNI VINSON
One of the newest final girls, YOU’RE NEXT’s “Erin” proved to be the love child of Nancy Thompson from NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and Kevin McAllister in HOME ALONE. Probably the most resourceful final girl, ever, Erin proved that women can fight back just as hard (if not harder) than the boys.

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5) SIGOURNEY WEAVER
Ellen Ripley in the ALIEN franchise is said to be one of the best horror protagonists of all time, but this bonafide badass woman also makes for an incredible final girl. No matter how powerful the aliens are, Ripley always walked away alive, and hungry for more.

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4) NEVE CAMPBELL
Sidney Prescott in the SCREAM franchise can’t catch a break, can she? With every film she grew stronger and smarter, and thanks to being fueled by the love for her deceased mother, nothing and no one could stop her.

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3) MARILYN BURNS
Sally Hardesty in TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is one of the most powerhouse portrayals of a final girl in cinematic history. Her will to live was downright inspiring and she had audiences rooting for her survival from the very beginning.

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2) JAMIE LEE CURTISHALLOWEEN’s Laurie Strode has had to deal with her angry older brother for a number of films, and she almost walked away unharmed. It took a few movies for her to learn how to fight back, but she persevered more than almost every other final girl.

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1) HEATHER LANGENKAMP
Nancy Thompson in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was one of the first final girls to actively plot their own survival tactics. Nancy was pure of heart, cunning and never let any obstacles get in the way of her getting out alive.